Give me one month of sleep hygiene - March 2022

I should do this: It's definitely a thing I'm not optimizing, not even remotely close, especially in Winter. <= Notice how I didn't quite commit, there? I'm thinking about it, though . . . .

Either way, thanks for posing the challenge.

DiscusTank5 wrote: »

I was awake for an hour in the middle of the night with pretty bad lower back pain. This is something I almost NEVER deal with. What did I do? Is it our mattress? I'd read somewhere that putting a pillow in between your knees can help, so I did that and it seemed to work, after awhile. If anyone has other suggestions, I'm open to them.

At various points, I've benefitted from rolling up a towel or something and putting it under my back in bed, too - whether side or back sleeping. (That may not be a thing that makes sense for men, though, for the side sleeping at least. I don't have much of a waist indent for a woman, but I do have some.) It really depends on specifically what's going on with your specific back, too. Could try heating pad or one of those stick on one-time chemical warm thingies, too.

I predict it's going to be a process, but I'm going to shoot for a more consistent bedtime (midnight to 1AM-ish), not playing with my phone in the middle of the night if I wake up, and getting up soon after I wake up (may check phone for AM resting HR & weather report, but not go on from there to other nonsense).

I am a life long insomniac. I try really hard not to doze on the couch before bed if I am really tired, don't drink caffeine after noon, exercise somehow almost every day, don't eat dinner late, or after dinner, keep electronics out of the bedroom..... but sometimes sleep is a most elusive . I have not tried prescription sleep meds, but have tried many herbal and homeopathic remedies. Sometimes they work; sometimes they don't. If anyone has any other suggestions - let me know please!

Two more days of OK but not great, 3/2 & 3/3. Got to sleep a few minutes after 1AM in both cases, so a bit later than goal; woke between 8:30 & 9; woke up lots during the night (3/3 was particularly bad), but went right back to sleep, didn't get up or play with my phone; did limited phone stuff as planned for a brief time after waking before getting out of bed. Still slogging along.

Is anyone else playing?

What a coincidence, I'm currently challenging myself to 7hrs sleep a night! I'm trying to turn my life-long night owl self into an early morning bird. But also, I'm just sick and tired of being tired. I was never great before kids and I've never recovered sleep-wise from them either, frequently having late nights to create some sort of evening for myself after they're finally asleep.
So far, I've managed 7hrs every night so far except one where I was 4 minutes short, and 7 days later, I'm still tired. Ugh.

March 5, better. Asleep between 12 and 1, check; stayed in bed all night, check; only woke up 2-3 times (unusually few); didn't pick up my phone during the night, check; didn't play on phone before getting out of bed other than the basic things I said were OK (weather & heart rate), check (almost slipped, but caught myself).

March 6, not asleep until almost 3AM, not good. Woke multiple times (usual), had trouble getting back to sleep (unusual), but didn't get up in the night; woke up/got up around 7:30AM, followed my phone rules. Bad night's sleep, need to control fatigue-eating later today, probably.

(As usual, the fitness tracker didn't capture all the times I know I was awake. I'm not imagining this: I had the tracker on during my last in-clinic sleep study, and they saw I was awake during long stretches when the tracker said I was asleep (because very still).)

Day 2:
Monday evening I really prepared: cold and well aired bedroom, lavender in diffuser, which also makes a slight rain like noise, was hydrated but not excessively, blue light filter glasses last hour before bedtime, 10 minute stretches and lotion on hands and feet. It was a complete success of 6h cumulative sleep, waking only 2 times, one a bathroom trip and the other an hour of just laying there.
My Fitbit also reads most of my time in bed as sleeping, and it used to bother me- now I’m trying to see it as proof of how far I got to teach my body to get on the verge of falling asleep. The little nudge over is a whole different story 😁.

3/8- yesterday at work I was in an excellent mood from the good sleep, mood continued through an afternoon nice but slow, walk in the park with a good friend, so I ditched the evening indoor bike in favor of the tv.
I never had a time in my life when I consistently exercised, just had a busy life for many years and started this February to do something physical every day. Slow by all means, but there.
Anyway, went to bed an hour later than usual, had one wake up that kept me for 2h+ of busy thoughts…
I think I got close to 5h, I’m in a normal mood today ( wouldn’t want to worry my colleagues) and some of my eye puffiness and dark circles are back. Yesterday I was glowing, I had a double take in the AM.
I am going back to my exercise plan today- it’s not a warranted good sleep but it clears my head and I am less munchy after 7.
Love to read others sleep analysis, too.
About me : 50, full time desk job, kids almost grown almost self sufficient, young dog.

Yesterday on the way home I stopped at a food warehouse and roamed there way longer than planned and messed my dinner time and all the after activities planned. On the plus side it was a cold and rainy day, so falling in bed felt really cozy.
I had a mediocre sleep with interruptions and weird dreams, but it beats the alternative, so I’m marking it a win and march ahead.

@AnnPT77 - a big “advantage” of having years of sleep issues is that we stopped a long time ago being shocked, angry, disappointed and/or baffled and is just a problem that needs solving. A nerdy but comforting approach😁.

I too see improvement since coming to this thread.
No mood/ energy change for you, even with big bedtime or rest difference- bravo.
I’m keeping an eye on mood changes because of my hormonal storm. I witnessed others being very difficult this time of their lives and want to get a grip before doing/saying regretful things.

I had a bad night too, without changing anything significant during the day, nor in the sleep preparation.
This week my sleep was : bad, good, medium, medium and bad. If it’s repeating then tonight is going to be luxurious with the added bonus of not having a set wake time. I had an exhausting day today and I’ll go for a longer walk with the dog tonight, 2 extra reasons for a good one.
Oh, I know it’s a coin toss, but at least I know I have as good hand 😁.

March 10, 1:20AM (a little late) to 8:40AM, with multiple wake-ups, one of them long, maybe 20'? That one, CPAP woke me (I'd forgotten to refill the humidifier), and I had to get up (bathroom), had trouble getting back to sleep. Followed my phone rules.

March 11, 12:30AM sleep (good), slept OK until around 4:45, tried to go back to sleep for around half an hour (among other things, counted breaths backwards from 100 at least twice 🙄, which usually works). Finally got up about 5:30, stayed up but relatively inactive for a little over an hour until I felt sleepy again, slept 6:40AM to about 10.

I'm going to keep going, keep working at this . . . but so far, it's more discouraging than otherwise . . . I guess because I'm revisiting how badly it went, so often, rather than just putting it behind me. 😐 Still, checking in keeps me working at it, and there are some benefits from shifting my waking-time hours, even with no actual sleep improvements.

3/12 and 3/13 - neither night went too good, the clock change was painful, and not the best decisions were made food wise.
Tomorrow is a new day.

That sounds really hard. I find disruptive sleep actually worse than a shorter stint (but better quality). Hope tonight is better.

Still on it, still not doing super well - maybe temporarily worse , even. I'm severely not hitting my go-to-sleep time slot goal of midnight to 1AM, since the time change. I'm about where I was, most nights, before the time change . . . but the clock has later numbers on it when that happens. 🙄

That aside, the last two days have been . . . not good.

March 14, I went to bed around 12:40 AM (on target, even with the current clock time), but couldn't get to sleep, which is unusual to me. Usually, I can fall asleep (or back to sleep) quite quickly. I actually fell asleep around 3, I think. I had a couple of short, normal-for-me wake-ups in there, but mostly was asleep until 7:15. I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't, and got up at about 8:15.

March 15, I didn't make it to sleep until 2:30AM or a small bit after. I got what felt like good, restful sleep for about 3 solid hours (relatively long time, for uninterrupted sleep, for me). Then I was utterly wide awake, and for some reason, one hip felt sore/uncomfortable. I got up, took OTC meds (acetominophen, diphenhydramine), stayed up - and on my phone to pass the time - until around 7:15, then slept another unbroken stretch until about 10:20.

Jacq_qui wrote: »

That sounds really hard. I find disruptive sleep actually worse than a shorter stint (but better quality). Hope tonight is better.

Y'know, for the first 2-3 years, it felt really hard, and actually was probably a bit worse than now. Now it's just normal. I've been sleeping with interruptions like this - sometimes with more regular bedtimes, BTW - for around 22 years. (It started during/after chemotherapy, which also put me in menopause, so who knows what the actual trigger was that. Before that, I'd slept continuously, easily.) Like I said up-thread, I feel like reporting here is focusing my attention on it with negative implications. Still, reporting in is helping - I think - in other ways, so I plan to stick with it through March, as per the challenge.

(FTR, yes, I have sleep apnea, but it's treated, and reconfirmed multiple times along the way that my settings are correct. I've tried lots of other things, too many to list, honestly - folklore to modern drugs._